


There Where You Are

by hoshi (ladylune)



Series: Sheith Week 2k16 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, AugustSheithWeek, Co-dependence, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, but not in the way you're thinking probably lmao, in which the voltron paladins are all disgustingly successful, sheith is practically married what else is new tho, the leg day is so tiny but it's there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 18:16:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7855963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladylune/pseuds/hoshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for #SheithWeek Day 3: Pining</p><p>"It's only going to be for three weeks," Keith murmured, unable to stop himself from smiling when Shiro pulled a face. "We can handle three weeks apart, right?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Where You Are

**Author's Note:**

> *wheezes as i crawl over the finish line* i made it! and on time!! ;A;
> 
> this is all fluffy shit dont let the prompt fool you. after yesterday all i want to do is drown in fluffy sheith forever
> 
>  **Warning(s):** not quite separation anxiety but close enough, mutual hardcore pining, the cute af image of keith making a nest with shiro's clothes pls imagine goodbye, UN-BETA'D  
>  **Disclaimer:** V:LD is not mine
> 
> happy reading~

—X—

 

 

"I'll call you every night," Shiro promised as he pressed rapid fire kisses to his face.

"I'm not a baby, Shiro," Keith mumbled, sleepily rubbing his eyes, "I'll be fine."

"I know, but God I'm going to miss you so much," Shiro leaned down to press their foreheads together, and Keith, never one to turn down a nuzzle, didn't waste any time in slithering his arms around Shiro's neck to hold him in place.

"It's only going to be for three weeks," Keith murmured, unable to stop himself from smiling when Shiro pulled a face. "We can handle three weeks apart, right? We're an adult couple, and this is what adult couples have to go through when one is a fancy astrophysicist and the other is just a deadbeat mechanic."

Shiro's arms, which had wrapped themselves around Keith's waist as soon as he had gotten close enough, tightened in warning. "Hey," he said, pulling away to glare, "I _will_ cancel this trip and pull out the PowerPoint again."

Keith chuckled, "I don't doubt it."

Gray eyes softened, "So don't talk bad about yourself then. Besides, I wouldn't call an internship with NASA engineers and helping work on their newest space ship a particularly dead beat job."

Keith shrugged, unrepentant, "I don't pay rent and I eat all your food, I count that as being dead beat."

Shiro just rolled his eyes in response, but his lips quirked up in a grin that Keith counted as a definite win.

The horn honking from the government issued car made Shiro jump and Keith couldn't help but glare at the black SUV for ruining their mood. The small smile that Keith had managed to coax out of his lover had all but disappeared again, replaced with worry lines and a frown that Keith wanted to kiss off.

"That's me," Shiro said, small and sad.

"I'll be here when you get home," Keith murmured before leaning up to kiss him, "I promise."

"いってきます," Shiro whispered against his lips.

Keith kissed him again, nipping and biting and licking until Shiro was the one who pulled away, breathless and flushed a pretty red. Keith smirked at his kiss bruised lips, admiring the sheen of spit that Shiro unconsciously licked away. "いってらっしゃい," he murmured, chuckling when his lover leveled him with another glare.

"You're going to miss your plane if we don't beat the morning traffic, sir!" The driver called out from his seat in the car.

Keith made a shooing motion with his hand, "You heard the man. Text me when you land, I'm going to go back to sleep."

Shiro opened his mouth, probably to argue more before he thought better and shut it with a sigh. "I love you," he said, voice embarrassingly soft.

Keith felt his own blush creep up his cheeks but refused to look away from his lover's face, beautiful in the golden morning light. "I love you too, Shiro," he whispered, unable to stop the tremor in his smile.

Shiro took another second to absorb his face, before he nodded once and turned to fast walk to the car.

Keith stood at their stoop, hands clenched on the railing as he watched the car door close—Shiro's face barely visible through the tinted windows. Their eyes met once before the car started moving, unknowingly taking Keith's heart with it.

He ended up standing there with his messy hair, mismatched socks, and boxers (which were actually Shiro's) until the car was well out of his sight. When he walked back inside, the sudden silence of their home felt immensely wrong.

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair as he leaned back against the door; there was no way he was sleeping now.

 

.

 

Keith had ended up watching dumb infomercials while waiting for Shiro's 'safely landed!' text. He sent a short 'Kay,' in reply, before sending a quick heart emoji as a follow up--choosing to ignore the way his face burned the entire time.

Shiro's reply of '♥ now please get some sleep' had made him snort, but Keith had never been one to turn down a suggestion from Shiro before and he wasn't going to start now.

It registered vaguely in his head as he was dragging their bed comforter and Shiro's pillows and Shiro's clothes to the living room couch... That maybe there was more to this whole thing than him looking for stuff to keep himself warm, but by the time the idea registered, he was already falling asleep with the scent of Shiro wrapped around him.

 

.

 

"I've heard of pathetic, but this takes on a whole new level."

It was Lance's voice that woke him up from his slumber, and when he finally managed to open his eyes to see the Latino peeking his head over the couch's backside, all he could do was sigh and close his eyes again.

"Hey, don't go back to sleep!" The other complained, indignant.

_"He's tired Lance, if he wants to rest, let him."_

Keith couldn't surge up from his makeshift sleeping bag fast enough when he heard that voice.

"Shiro?" He breathed, turning his head in the direction he had heard it from, shoulders rising—only to fall again when he caught sight of Hunk standing there with his iPad pointed Keith's direction. "You're still on your trip," he sighed at the screen, unable to stop his frown even when he realized just how irrational it was to think that he had slept through three weeks in the first place.

"Sorry dude," Hunk said, small smile sad and completely understanding.

Keith sighed again and gestured him to give the device over so he could stare down at the blurry Skype feed. "Hey," he murmured, gently touching the screen.

Shiro smiled up at him, _"Hey yourself,"_ he murmured, _"and, uh, sorry about calling the cavalry on you..."_ he blushed, _"I got worried when you didn't pick up your phone."_

Keith shook his head, "Don't be, I would've probably done the same."

He heard Lance snort from the kitchen, "More like he would've repurposed a rocket and blast his way through the friggin sky guns blazing and--ow! Hunk, what the hell!"

Keith rolled his eyes but smiled when he heard Shiro laugh over the speakers. Their eyes met and Keith felt a phantom ache he didn't even realize was there, disappear. "Hey," he said again, fingers running gently over the sides of the tablet.

Shiro chuckled, his eyes curving into that upside down smile that Keith loved to kiss, _"Hey,"_ he said, playing along.

"Oh god," Lance moaned, "it's like their first month of dating all over again!"

 

.

 

"You guys can leave," Keith muttered an hour later when the time difference finally made Shiro admit defeat in the fight against sleep. Keith wanted to stay on and watch him but admitted grudgingly that it would be too much, for both Hunk's iPad and Lance's sensibilities.

Hunk just shook his head from where he was sautéing something over the stove, "No way dude, we promised Shiro that we would look after you and that's what we're going to do."

"Speak for yourself," Lance grumbled, "I'm just here because no way am I getting some crappy take out while you steal my husband's five star home cooking."

Hunk sighed, "Lance."

"Fine. I'm here for the embarrassing pictures too," he smirked at Keith, "nice nest you got there by the way, co-dependent much?"

Keith grit his teeth before his inner Shiro kicked in and started mentally mourning the damage that would undoubtedly befall their dining room if he actually started fist fighting the idiot. Mentally chanting 'What Would Shiro Do',' Keith counted down from ten before taking a deep breath. "I'm going back to sleep," he bit out—the best he could do without Shiro there to actually ground him.

"I'll call you when the food is done," was Hunk's reply, a knowing smile on his lips.

He saw Pidge letting themselves in on the way to the living room.

“Hey," they greeted when they saw him.

Keith grunted in reply before vaulting himself over the couch, sighing when he landed in his amassed pile of pillows, blankets, and clothes.

As he was wrapping himself up with the comforter, he saw Pidge poke their head in with an amused grin. "Nice nest," they said, "did you build it yourself?"

From the kitchen, Lance's obnoxious laugh bounced off the walls along with Hunk's audible sigh. Usually Shiro would step in by now, telling the others to lay off before probably smiling himself, fond and soft... And then maybe he would've laughed too...

Keith curled the comforter closer to him before dragging one of Shiro's shirts to him and inhaling when the empty ache in his chest started growing again.

 

.

 

The weeks passed just like that.

Keith went to work, listless, restless, and numb. Helping with the new rocket was a bright point and helped cheer him up, but when he went home to silence and no Shiro, all he could do was grab all the snacks and slither back onto the couch.

Their friends stopped by as if on rotation. Lance and Hunk always came as a pair, even when Lance's annoying quips faded to gentle ribbing and repeated versions of "God, you guys have it _bad_." Pidge visited too, and when they weren't dropping grocery bags of healthy snacks onto Keith's lap and dashing out to teach another class at the University, they brought take out and animal documentaries.

At the end of the day however, the only thing that managed to—unsurprisingly—cheer Keith up were the Skype dates with Shiro.

It was also nice to see that he wasn’t the only one suffering from the separation. In the earlier weeks, Shiro would still have a smile for Keith. Now, he greeted Keith with the same listlessness that Keith saw every day when he looked in the mirror, complete with the bags under his eyes and the long, heavy sighs.

"We're supposed to be adults," Keith told him one night, "but I haven't pined this hard for you since our College days and God, I don't miss this shit at _all_."

Shiro chuckled, _"We've got it bad, huh?"_

"I built a nest," Keith murmured almost guiltily.

Shiro smiled, tired but fond, _"I know, Lance sent me the pictures he took. I should consider that, for next time—a nest made out of your clothes sounds really good right now."_

Keith brought up his hands to cover his blush before groaning because, "Babe, I can barely survive _this_ time."

 _"Me neither,"_ Shiro sighed, shoulder drooping as he massaged this temples. _"Why is this so hard?"_ He asked with a short hysterical laugh.

Keith gave a snort, "I'm sure our friends have a lot of ideas about that."

Shiro smiled, _"I should ask Pidge what they think."_

"At this point, I honestly think that they've already started a study on us. Every time they visit, they always make a point to ask me a couple of weird questions."

The idea of Pidge writing a paper on the both of them had them meeting each other's eyes through the screen before sharing a laugh, because _"God, I wouldn't even be surprised."_

 

.

 

The first thing that Shiro saw when he walked out of the airplane terminal was NASA's garishly orange jumpsuit, and when he realized that yes, it _was_ currently pooling around his gorgeous boyfriend's waist, and yes, that really _was_ Keith holding up poster board and looking like he wanted to hide—well, let's just say that Shiro couldn't run fast enough.

If he had thrown himself into Keith's arms ten years earlier, they probably would've ended up on the ground, but seeing as Keith now worked with heavy machinery, Shiro was stopped with only a mere stumble backwards.

"Keith," he nearly sobbed as he buried his face into the man's and _breathed_.

"God, Shiro," was Keith's muffled reply, "I missed you so fucking much."

Arms tightened around him and it was all Shiro could do to hang on.

"Next time I'm coming with you, I don't care if I have to stow myself in your damn baggage—“

Shiro laughed, the sound so clear and bright that Keith damn near melted. He closed his eyes, burying his face more into Shiro's neck as he briefly entertained the thought of never letting go.

He was trying to figure out ways to eat soup while wrapped up like this when Shiro's soft, "ただいま," tickled his ear.

He chuckled, "We're not home yet, babe."

Shiro's response was to pull away to meet Keith's eyes, "My home was always with you, Keith," he murmured, fingers curling into Keith's jacket like he was scared he would run off at the admission.

Keith however, Keith could only stare as a piece of his heart clicked back into place.

Shiro lowered his head, sending him unsure glances from underneath his thick lashes when he failed to say something. "You don't have to say anything, I'm just being—"

"おかえり."

The way Shiro's eyes lit up and the way his gasp of surprise melted into the softest of smiles before he leaned in to press those lips to Keith's own—those were the things that Keith wanted to remember for the rest of his life.

 

 

—X—

**Author's Note:**

>  **Translation Notes:**  
>  [said by Shiro] いってきます - "I'm off"  
> [said by Keith] いってらっしゃい - "Take care"  
> [said by Shiro] ただいま - "I'm home"  
> [said by Keith] おかえり - "Welcome home"
> 
> *melts into a gooey mess
> 
> kudos are buttons of love and appreciation & comments will be replied with my happy tears :'D  
> come say hi on **[twitter](https://twitter.com/hoshiwrites)** | **[tumblr](http://hoshiwrites.tumblr.com/)** where it's almost all sheith all the time ^q^b
> 
> & thanks as always for reading~


End file.
